U.S. Pat. No. 3,760,335 describes a multi-contact electrical connector having an insulating housing, cavities extending through the housing from the wire entry face to the mating face, and terminals positioned in the cavities. Each terminal has a wire receiving and connecting portion which is adjacent to the wire entry face of the housing. The wire receiving portions are in the form of platelike members having wire receiving slots. The slots have a width such that when a wire is moved laterally of its axis and into a slot, the edges of the slot establish electrical contact with the wire.
Electrical connectors of the general type described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,760,335 have been accepted with enthusiasm in many segments of the electrical industry and are now in widespread use. A distinct advantage of such connectors is that the terminals are preloaded into the connector housing and the connector can then be installed on the ends of wires by a simple hand tool or by the use of a harness making machine of the type shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,043,017.
Connectors having wire receiving and connecting portions in the form of wire receiving slots are usually used only with solid wires and in only a few instances have such connectors been used with stranded wires. It is difficult to design a wire receiving slot which is suitable for stranded wires, for several reasons. For example, stranded wires of the same gage may contain different numbers of strands and a slot which is suitable for a wire containing say seven strands, may be unsuitable for a wire containing a larger number of strands. Furthermore, the strands tend to spread apart when they are inserted in the wire receiving slot and the resulting electrical contact between the wire and the terminal may deteriorate.
It would be desirable to provide a connector having the advantages of the known types of preloaded electrical connectors which can be used with stranded wires and which would be usable with different wire sizes and with wires having varying numbers of strands. The present invention is directed to the achievement of a connector of this type.
One embodiment of the connector in accordance with the invention comprises an insulating housing having a mating face, a wire entry face, and sidewalls and endwalls extending between the faces. Cavities extend through the housing and an electrical terminal is preloaded in each cavity. One of the sidewalls of the housing has an integral housing flap which is hinged to the housing at a location between the housing faces. The flap is open prior to installation of the connector on the ends of the wires and the flap is movable to a closed position. When the flap is open, portions of the cavities which extend from the hinge to the wire entry face of the housing are exposed or open on one side to permit the placement of the ends of wires in alignment with the wire connecting portions of the terminals in the housing. Each of the terminals has a wire clamping flap hinged to the terminal adjacent to the housing flap hinge and the clamping flap extends beside the housing flap when the two flaps are in their open position. When the housing flap is moved from its open position to its closed position, it pushes the clamping flap to its closed position. Wires can therefore be connected to the terminals by simply locating the ends of the wires in alignment with the terminals and moving the housing flap to its closed position. The clamping flap will clamp the ends of the wires to the terminals and a stable, low resistance electrical connection will be achieved.